AHL Manchester Monarchs

Admirals Sink Monarchs Battleship

February 28, 2014 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Manchester Monarchs News Release


NORFOLK, VA - The Manchester Monarchs comeback fell short as they dropped a 3-2 decision to the Norfolk Admirals at the Norfolk Scope on Friday night.

Manchester (36-15-2-6) leads the Atlantic Division with 80 points. Norfolk (30-17-1-7) is ranked second in the East Division with 68 points.

"Tonight, we played a tremendous first period and it carried over into the second," said Monarchs Head Coach Mark Morris. "A barrage of penalty calls in the middle of the second zapped our energy and by the tail of the period, we had some sloppy execution which led to two quick goals against. At that point, momentum swung in the Admirals favor. The packed house was buzzing. We didn't test (Viktor) Fasth nearly enough in my opinion. We got pushed out from their net by their (defense). Their physicality enabled Fasth to make easy saves. A few times, we got pancaked on the power play in front of the Norfolk net. I guess we'll need to address that for tomorrow.

"Clearly their size advantage worked in their favor. There were spurts of intense play in the offense end, but we didn't deliver the offense pushback when it mattered most. You have to win loose pucks in the blue paint and find a way to score."

Center Rickard Rakell scored the Admirals second power play goal of the night and his 14th tally of the season just 58-seconds into the third period. Defenseman Alex Grant kept the puck in at the right point and sent a pass down to left wing Devante Smith-Pelly along the right wing half wall. Smith-Pelly found Rakell on the inside corner of the right face-off circle for a one-timer into the top left corner of the net for a 3-2 lead.

The Monarchs struck first with defenseman Andrew Bodnarchuk's sixth goal of the season at 9:58 of the second period. Forward Ian O'Connor won the face-off in the neutral zone and Bodnarchuk picked up the loose puck. The defenseman fired a slap shot from outside the Admirals blueline that soared into the back of the net, beating netminder Viktor Fasth.

The Admirals tied the game at 16:50 of the middle frame. Rakell sent the puck behind the Monarchs cage for left wing Max Friberg to pick up and backhand into the slot. Right wing Emerson Etem picked up the puck and flipped a backhand shot through traffic that beat Monarchs netminder Mathias Niederbger.

Defenseman Sami Vatanen gave Norfolk a 2-1 advantage with a power play goal at 19:18 of the second stanza. Etem collected the puck from Rakell along the left wing wall. Etem carried it a couple of strides below the left face-off circle before passing the puck over to Vatanen who was skating down the right wing. Vatanen chipped the puck into the open net for his second goal of the season.

The Monarchs battled their way back to within one tally with center Nick Shore's 11th goal of the season at 17:29 of the final frame. With Monarchs defenseman Colin Miller in the penalty box for boarding, right wing Brian O'Neill stole the puck away from an Admirals defenseman and broke in on Fasth with a two-on-one breakaway with Shore. In the left face-off circle, O'Neill slid the puck over to Shore in the right face-off circle for the one-timer that beat Fasth. Defenseman Andrew Campbell also picked up an assist on the shorthanded tally.

Niederberger (1-1-1) took his first regulation loss of the season, stopping 19-of-22 shots. Fasth (2-2-0) earned his second win of the season with 26 saves on 28 shots.

Manchester was 0-for-4 on the power play. Norfolk went 2-for-6 with the man advantage.

Notables: The Monarchs seven-game unbeaten in regulation streak (6-0-0-1) came to end with tonight's loss...Manchester has scored five shorthanded goals this season...Center Nick Shore has four goals in his last four games...Defenseman Andrew Bodnarchuk leads Monarchs blueliners with six goals, 16 assists and 22 points.

The Monarchs will rematch with the Admirals at the Norfolk Scope at 7:15 p.m. on Saturday, March 1. Catch all of the play-by-play action of Monarchs hockey with Ken Cail on Monarchs Radio Network WGIR AM 610, WGIRAM.com, and at manchestermonarchs.com presented by Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.



American Hockey League Stories from February 28, 2014


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